Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, right, opened the scoring against former teammate Marc-Andre Fleury and the Wild in a victory on Thursday in Pittsburgh.
Gene J. Puskar | AP photo
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PITTSBURGH — Tristan Jarry stopped 27 shots and the Pittsburgh Penguins kept pace in the race for one of the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference with a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
The Penguins bounced back from a miserable performance in a loss to New Jersey on Tuesday by putting together three complete periods, a rarity for most of the last three months.
Kris Letang beat Fleury, a good friend who won three Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh before leaving in the 2017 expansion draft, over the glove in the first period for his 11th goal of the season. Rickard Rakell, Jason Zucker and Jeff Carter also scored for the Penguins, who are trying to extend their playoff streak to 17 straight years.
Fleury is already assured of a 17th consecutive trip to the postseason after the Wild wrapped up a spot earlier this week. Minnesota’s bid to chase down first-place Colorado in the Central Division took a hit when the Wild struggled to generate much in traffic in front of Jarry until they fell too far behind. Fleury stopped 27 shots while falling to 4-4 all-time against the team for which he played from 2003-17.
Marcus Johansson scored on the two-man advantage midway through the third period to spoil Jarry’s bid for a shutout, but couldn’t stop Minnesota from losing in regulation for just the third time in its last 24 games.
Jarry’s season has mirrored that of the Penguins. When he has been good, Pittsburgh has been good. When he’s not, the Penguins often look lost. The problem hasn’t been ability but health and consistency. Jarry entered Thursday just 7-9-3 in his last 22 appearances with a save percentage (.892) well below his career average (.913) while dealing with a handful of injuries.
The two-time All-Star insists he’s healthy at the moment and Pittsburgh’s best chance to slip past either the Florida Panthers or New York Islanders (or both) for a wild card is to replicate what they did against the Wild. The Penguins controlled play early and kept the momentum going, something that’s been an issue for most of the last three months.
Fleury’s return to a city where he’s still beloved isn’t the same emotional reunion it was five years ago. He’s moved on. Minnesota is his third stop since leaving the Penguins yet he remains sharp nearly two decades into his career.
The Wild are heading to the postseason thanks to a second-half turnaround largely sparked by the play of part of Fleury and fellow goaltender Filip Gustavsson.
Fleury was crisp early as Pittsburgh pressed, with Letang breaking through 15:02 into the first when he rifled a wrist shot from the short side over Fleury’s glove. Rickard Rakell doubled the lead just past the game’s midway point with a one-timer from the left circle.
Pittsburgh’s beleaguered penalty kill turned away three Minnesota power plays and when Zucker fired a shot off the rush that beat Fleury, Pittsburgh was up three and still in the thick of the postseason chase.
PANTHERS 7, SENATORS 2
SUNRISE, Fla. — Alex Lyon set a franchise record for saves in a regulation game and Aleksander Barkov scored twice as Florida beat Ottawa for its fifth consecutive victory.
Florida remains tied with the New York Islanders for the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference but holds the tiebreaker with more wins.
Lyon got his fifth consecutive win in place of Sergei Bobrovsky and ended with 56 saves — surpassing the regulation record of 53 set by Craig Anderson on March 2, 2008.
The record for most saves total in a game of 57 was set in a overtime loss to Detroit by Hall of Famer Roberto Luongo on Feb. 27, 2002. Lyon’s 56 saves is second all-time in Florida history.
Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart, Eetu Luostarinen, Nick Cousins and Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida, which scored five goals in the second period alone.
Claude Giroux, who played for the Panthers following last season’s trade deadline, scored for the Senators who were eliminated from playoff contention with the loss. Ridly Greig scored late in the third for Ottawa.
The Panthers opened up to a 2-0 game with goals from Montour and Barkov. Florida made it 3-0 on a shorthanded goal from Barkov, his 22nd of the season.
Giroux scored at 4:25 to put Ottawa on the board — but it was all Florida after that.
The Panthers got a power play goal from Reinhart at 7:48 and then another from Luostarinen less than two minutes later to make it 5-1.
Ottawa drew a pair of penalties on one sequence (roughing on Aaron Ekblad and holding on Cousins) giving the Senators a two-man advantage for a full two minutes.
Florida not only killed it off — but Radko Gudas found Ekblad coming out of the penalty box with Cousins driving in for the sixth goal of the night for the Panthers.
Forsling ended the second period scoring with a blast from inside the blue line with three minutes remaining.
ISLANDERS 6, LIGHTNING 1
NEW YORK — Adam Pelech, Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri and Ryan Pulock all scored second-period goals, Ilya Sorokin made 29 saves and New York kept pace in the Eastern Conference wild-card race with a win over Tampa Bay.
Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat also scored for the Islanders, who had lost their previous two games and three of their last five before emerging with two key points in a battle with Florida and Pittsburgh for the two wild-card spots.
All three teams won Thursday night. The Panthers and Islanders are tied with 89 points, with the Penguins just one point behind. Each has three games remaining.
Kucherov ruined Sorokin’s shutout bid at 16:47 of the second with his 30th goal. It’s the sixth time in nine seasons Kucherov has reached the 30-goal mark.
Pelech scored at 3:46 of the middle period after a scoreless first during which the Islanders outshot the Lightning 13-3. Pelech’s shot eluded a cluster of traffic in front of Brian Elliott for the defenseman’s sixth goal of the season.
Nelson made it 2-0 with his 33rd goal at 9:54 before Palmieri scored 49 seconds later to give the Islanders a three-goal cushion.
Pulock increased the lead to 4-1 with his fifth goal with 20 second left in the second.
Holmstrom added his sixth at 15:14 of the third. Bo Horvat closed out the scoring in the final minute.
Lightning forward Tanner Jeannot left midway through the second and didn’t return after he fell awkwardly and twisted his lower right leg while tangled with Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield.
Tampa Bay, which clinched a postseason spot earlier this week for the sixth straight season, will face Toronto in the opening round of the playoffs. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021 after eliminating the Islanders in the Eastern Conference finals. They reached the Stanley Cup Finals last season, when they lost to Colorado in six games.